Opinions: $20 Quality Titles to become more and more frequent?

[LTM360]

As the title states, what are opinions on this, we've got Outlaw Golf 2, ESPN NFL 2K5, Indy Car Series '05, & Colin McRae '04 for the budget price, and all of them are looking promising, or are good titles. As you can tell by the 4, they all are sports titles though... Some peoples biggest complaint (mine included) about sports games, is that there's a new one every season, which costs $50 a pop for new rosters, and little else. Do you all think this may become a sports trend, or possibly even in games in general?

[echthroi]

I hope they start to lower the prices of games. I can barely afford games for my gameboy. Somehow though, it seems to good to be true...

[Sodacider]

[rant]
Hate to bring it up, but for any of you old PC gamers out there, you'll remember this...

like no earlier than even 5 years ago, games were still worth $50.
Why?

Because it wasn't just a CD. You know how they used to come in those big boxes? they needed them, because they were so packed with stuff.
For instance, you could buy an RPG and you'd get a cloth map, multiple manuals and maybe even a trinket (or one in particular gave you a set of cards that corresponded to the game).
Or a strategy game with a manual as thick as they come, like Outpost 2, with a long story and a theme to everything.

The only game in recent memory that's come close is Morrowind and Red Alert 2 and "Collectors Edition" games. But why are you paying $70 for the collectors edition games, when that used to be standard fare for $40 games?

A CD costs just pennies to print for high-tech industry. These dinky little manuals aren't much more, and I'd bet that companies wouldn't even have those if it weren't for the obligatory seizure warnings and copyright texts.

all in all, unless a game is hellishly good these days, you aren't getting your money's worth. I understand that research & development supposedly alter this cost, but companies streamline everything so much these days that they are probably making the games cheaper than some of the ones back in the day.

Halo, of course, is an example of a game you don't need or want a manual for.
But then again, it still offers books you can read.
[/rant]

[echthroi]

Yeah, it seems like the manufacturers would still make the same about of money, or even more, if they lowered prices. If they did, more people would buy their games.

[Xer0Mercy]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any of those games are made by EA. Going to my point, These companies are dueling with EA, the major sports company. Their only way to rival with EA is to drop the prices of their games. If they don't, they'll probably never last.

If one of those games are made by EA, my post is completely jeopardized, lol.

[Variation-XBA]

Its a trend that will continue, but not mainstream for awhile still.

Games used to be 79.99 new (canadian), now they are comming out at 69.99 or 59.99 (halo 2 for instance).

It will continue as more companys choose to do this, not only to help sales, but to get a bigger user base as well, and to fight piracy.

[David Luckey]

I am a cheap *******-I won't pay 50 dollars for a game, I just won't.
I wait till games drop price-eg. Halo-I got it the day it went to $30
Recently, I bought
Collin Mcrae Rally 04
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Beyond Good and Evil
Soldier of Fortune II
James Bond Nightfire
and XIII
All were 20.
I read game reviews all the time-so I know what is worth buying
I go to best buy, and look at everything under 30-then buy the best 1 or 2 games, then do the same thing next month...not spending too much too frequently, and 2 games will last me a good month, not to mention the enormous replay values of all my other games.

[Ninjermy]

Yeah, it seems like the manufacturers would still make the same about of money, or even more, if they lowered prices. If they did, more people would buy their games.

It is all about supply and demand. it is risky for the companies to sell there games at low low prices. its not that simple to just say "if we sell the game for 20 dollars, more people will buy it and we will make the same profits!"